Smart medicine container

Abstract

A medicine dispensing system is provided that comprises of a medicine container with an inbuilt pill dispensing assembly which automatically dispenses a prescribed dose of medicine at prescribed times. It alerts the patient when a dose of medicine has been dispensed. The alert signal is a local audio or visual alarm or a remote reminder by phone, wireless network or internet. A modem and communication ports are provided which enable the said medicine container to communicate with remote parties like health care professionals and medical devices such as glucose meter. This feature allows remote medicine management, disease management and health education. An internal microprocessor and a memory chip control and execute electronic functions of the said medicine container. Sensors are provided to detect whether a dose has been dispensed and whether it is consumed. The said medicine container is able to record, analyze and report patient's compliance with a medicine regimen.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to medicine containers, more specifically to a medicine container with an inbuilt pill dispensing assembly that automatically dispenses a prescribed dose of medicine at prescribed times. According to another aspect, the present invention relates to medicine containers that communicate with remote parties like health care professionals and ancillary medical devices like a glucose meter. According to yet another aspect, the present invention relates to medicine containers that monitor and report patient compliance with a medicine regimen.BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART[0002]The advances in medicine are enhancing the quality and longevity of human lives. Ailments, for which there were no effective treatments before, are now effectively treated by one or more drugs. In many cases, patients have to remember to take a dose of medicine at prescribed times. A number of ailments require treatment with one or more combination of medicines. With m...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]The smart medicine container has an accurate and reliable automatic pill dispensing assembly that is built into the container itself. It is capable of automatically dispensing medicines according to the instructions of the prescription. It has an audio and visual alarm that alerts the patients when a medicine dose has been dispensed and ready to be taken. According to another aspect of the invention, the medicine container provides means for recording, analyzing and reporting patient's compliance with a medicine regimen. According to another aspect of the present invention, the medicine container has a modem and communication ports which enable it to communicate with remote parties like health care professionals and medical devices like a glucose meter, blood pressure monitor etc. It can send remote reminders to patients, is able to receive remote instructions from physicians and has means to accordingly change a medicine regimen. In addition, it is able to retrieve information from medical devices and has the means to accordingly modify a medicine regimen. It sends information obtained from medical devices to physicians, who can then remotely change medicine regimen. According to yet another aspect of the invention, the medicine container has an electronic display unit which displays medicine and other health related information. The present invention also provides means for a web based comprehensive medication management solution. According to another aspect of the present invention, the smart medication container provides advanced security features to prevent misuse of prescription medications.

Problems solved by technology

A patient may have difficulty remembering to take medicine at recommended times. Sometimes, patients have difficulty remembering that they have already taken a dose.

Some patients have difficulty remembering the recommended dose of medicine to be taken, especially if a medicine dose requires more than one pill of the same medicine.

In a multiple drug regimen, such a scenario is even more convoluted and may pose grave consequences to the patient.

In addition, eyesight fade with age and reading labels of medicine containers can present a problem.

In this case, patients are unable to generate a routine based around taking the medicine.

The end result of the above situations is that the amount of medicine taken is either too low to affect the course of the ailment, or is too high and causes overdose reactions.

There are many studies that show that management of chronic diseases is unsatisfactory in spite of the great advances in medicine.

Even more worrisome is the practice that patients do not inform physicians of their non compliance with medicine regimen.

This results in unnecessary changes in patient's medicine regimen which can be detrimental to the health of the patient.

This practice also increases health care cost.

These medicine containers do not have features to assist patients remember to take their medicines or to record their compliance with a medicine regimen.

While these approaches are viable as long as they are properly used, the indicating position is easily altered and presents no reliable permanent record.

These devices additionally provide tactile assistance to patients in appropriately repositioning the indicator arms and, when used correctly, may reduce the possibility of patient overdose by restricting improper attempts to advance the indicator arm.

Moreover, with these devices, patients have to learn complex instruction each time a change is made in medicine dose or frequency.

Both these are problematic in elderly, disabled or in patients with cognitive impairment.

However, there are problems with the devices described in the prior art.

This is a time consuming and manpower intensive process that makes these devices costly and inefficient.

None of these devices provide the ease and cost effectiveness of the present day throwaway plastic medicine containers where a bulk supply of medicaments can be dispensed at one time.

There are major disadvantages to the inventions that rely on medicine container cap removal as a measure of compliance.

Once the device recognizes the removal of the cap, any number of doses may be removed from the bottle without proper recognition, thus seriously compromising the device's ability to properly record compliance.

Even more troublesome is the possibility that the cap device might not be reinstalled on the bottle; if not, the subsequent removal of medicines from the bottle go unmonitored.

In addition, the devices described in prior inventions share some common drawbacks that include: 1) none of the prior art devices have the ability to automatically count and dispense a prescribed quantity of medicine at prescribed times from a bulk supply within the medicine container.

2) These devices do not provide any protection against abuse of prescription medicines.

3) The prior art devices do not provide any protection against the consumption of medicines that have expired.

Medicines that are beyond their expiry date are associated with significant life threatening side effects.

4) They do not provide security features to prevent use by a person other than the intended patient.

5) Devices proposed by the prior inventions do not allow for remote medicine management.

6) Prior art devices do not assist with comprehensive disease management.

Prior art devices do not provide a solution to this problem.

7) The devices of prior inventions are cumbersome and expensive to manufacture.

None of the prior inventions have provided the necessary reliability and inexpensive implementation to present itself as a viable alternative to today's plastic throwaway medicine containers.

The value of additional features suggested by the prior inventions, have not justified the added costs.

Some prior art devices provide limited solution to individual problems faced by patients, health care professionals and pharmacists in ensuring compliance.

However none of these devices have provided a comprehensive one stop solution to manage the multiple complex problems that hinder patient's compliance with a medicine regimen.

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